Hiatus and change
I was a member in 2004 and left, returned in 2016 and allowed my subscription to lapse. It would be safe to proclaim myself a much different man than I was then for so many reasons. Divorce, uprooting my living situation, sobriety, weight loss, and perspective. What has evolved and come through the fire is a far better version of myself, and I am so thankful.
Who the hell is Jack Radikal? Complicated. Simply put, it is I, JT the Jack Radikal. Where did he come from? Sobriety and ambition. Mind you, I firmly enjoy my cannabis yet alcohol had made me a slave to an overseer of epic proportions. I was high functioning, never had legal or job issues. My comeuppance came in the form of a health scare. I HAD to stop drinking and I ecstatically do not miss it.
I've been singing and making music since kindergarten, in many incarnations. I will be 45 this May. My creativity waned to the point of absence while I numbed my problems with liquor, when I left it behind, the floodgates opened...
Aside from the hard rock/funk/metal fusion project I'm helping to get off the ground as the vocalist in a 5 man original project, there has been a ridiculous flow of rhymes flowing. All day at the day job I'm dropping myselt notes as streams of consciousness roll out of my mind.
It started with a haircut. I go to a barbershop, like, old school, but young men, mostly black brothers cutting. Just in conversation one dude asked if I ever did any freestyle. I said not off the cuff, but if I scribbled stuff down I could... I've written poetry my whole life. 🔥➡️stoked.
Wrote 3 verses in ten minutes. The first have birth to Jack. ...The radical, my gramatical's mathematical. Wanna battle me? Best take a sabbatical... Pages and pages. Evolved... JT, the Jack Radikal, gramatic mathematical... Birth.
And then? Fits so easily... Mack jackrabbit run as fast as I can, JT the Jack Radikal, the magical man. I see promise.
My man, essentially a brother to me is in town from LA for the holidays. He's teetering on whether he should keep trying with music. My answer to him was essentially the point of this post...
-we may never get rich, we may never get famous, but it's never too late. It's never ever too late. When something is in your blood you can't shake it out, and to try and do so would be the opposite of living. No matter what we have gone through, are going through, or have come out through, we all owe it to ourselves to be what we can. Better to try and fail then not try. The expert has failed more times than the amateur has tried.
Love to all, maybe one day Jack will cross your path in this world, who knows? ❤️JT
